
Gass — — 

Book__ 






PERSONAL INFLUENCE 



Abraham Lincoln 



A SERMON 



PREACHED 



K$)n the Rational itfast-Bay, ^hujjsday, June 1st, .1865, 



ERSKINE N. WHITE, 

PASTOR OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEW-ROC HE I, LK, N . V, 



PUBLISHED BY REQUKST. 



N E W - V O 11 K : 

.l()H\ A. URA.Y & GREEN, PRINTERS, Nos. 16 and 18 JACOB STREET. 

1865. 




/ 



THE 



PERSONAL INFLUENCE 



Abraham Lincoln 



A SERMON 



PREACHED 



l$)n the Rational ^fast-Bay, tf5hutj$day, June Ht, J865, 



ERSKINE N. WHITE, 

PASTOR OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, N E W - R C H E LI E , X. Y 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 



NEW- YORK: 

JOHN A. GEAY & GKEEN, PEINTEES, Nos. 16 and 18 JACOB STEEET. 

1805. 



E> 



THE 



PERSONAL INFLUENCE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



"So Tic fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided thctn by 
the skUlfulness of his hands." — Psalm 7S : 72. 

In accordance with the proclamation of the Presi- 
dent, we have met here to-day that, " with our fellow- 
citizens, assembled in their respective places of wor- 
ship, we may unite in solemn service to Almighty God 
in memory of the good man who has been removed, so 
that all may be occupied at the same time in contem- 
plation of his virtues, and in sorrow for his sudden and 
violent end." 

It is not with us to-day, as it was upon that sad 
Easter Sunday when our joy was turned into mourn- 
ing, for all excitement and violence of emotion have 
passed away, and the country no longer trembles with 
the deej3 sob which was the first spontaneous utterance 
of a stricken people. The obsequies are over, the days 
of formal mourning are ended, the public life of the 
nation is again moving onward in its stately course, 
and now, just as the spring-flowers are blossoming upon 
the new-made grave, we pause again to speak more 



calmly of the debt that the country owes to Abraham 

LmCOLTT. 

This, then, is primarily a day of commemoration, a 
day in which sorrow and thanksgiving are mingled ; 
sorrow for our great, our irreparable loss — thanksgiving 
for what our departed President was permitted to ac- 
complish ; and while we unite, as we already have, in 
prayer to God for His mercy, and in praise for His lov- 
ing-kindness, we may not omit our heart-felt tribute to 
the memory of the honored dead. Yet, though the 
occasion and the terms of the proclamation thus com- 
mand the theme that will engage our attention, I 
should shrink from the part allotted to me in the con- 
duct of these services, did I suppose that, in any great 
degree, their interest depended upon the novelty or 
freshness of the thoughts that are to be presented. As 
it is, the eloquence of the subject and the unison of our 
hearts render my task comparatively easy. That we 
may, however, secure at least the semblance of a line 
of thought, I have chosen a text that suggests more 
particularly a single aspect of the character of Abra- 
ham Lincoln. 

The Psalmist, speaking of David, as chosen by God 
and taken from the sheep-folds to occupy the throne, 
adds, as the highest eulogy upon the king : " So he fed 
them according to the integrity of his heart ; and guided 
them by the skillfulness of his hands." The work of 
the sovereign was made successful by his qualities as a 
man. He was no mere figure-head to the state — the 
apex of a constitutional pyramid— he made himself 



felt as a man, and guided the people by his personal 
influence, impressing upon the national life his own 
qualities of integrity and righteousness, and leaving the 
mark of his skillful hands upon all the acts of the 
people. 

How far may we apply these words to the man 
whom we mourn to-day % In other words, how much 
may we venture to claim for the personal influence of 
Lincoln \ 

It is to be remembered that many men, who have 
attracted a large share of the attention of their gen- 
eration, have been yet almost devoid of any of that 
influence that springs directly from the personal quali- 
ties of mind or heart. A man may be the executive 
of a great nation and, as such, be known and feared ; 
he may be the mouth-piece of a formidable power, and 
so be honored with every mark of deference and re- 
spect ; and yet, after all, be only the puppet or play- 
thing of more influential minds that govern him. 
The majority of the kings who have held the sceptre 
and worn the purple, have been merely names upon the 
page of history — men of straw, who, by a sort of his- 
toric fiction, are said to have accomplished certain 
acts. 

Not such was Abraham Lincoln. His signet is ivpon 
the pages of history, and his personal influence as dis- 
tinguished from his official importance can not be over- 
looked or denied. 

Such influence manifests itself in two ways. Our 
text reads : " He fed them according to the integrity 



6 

of his heart ; and he guided tliem by the skillfulness of 
his hands." The moral influence of his character nur- 
tured and transformed the people, while at the same 
time he skillfully made his own hand manifest in guid- 
ing their eternal fortunes. 

Let us, in speaking of Lincoln, take the second of 
these thoughts first. 

I. Our first question, then, is this : Can we find, 
deeply graven upon the events of the last four years, 
the marks of the personal influence of the man ? 

I am not of the number of those who believe that 
the great events of history spring primarily from the 
enthusiasm, will, or abilities of the men who are the 
chief actors in their progress. Under God's direction, 
the history of man passes on from century to century ; 
and, if we read it aright, we find that it portrays a 
constant progress. Each in its own place, for example, 
appear the successive discoveries in the arts and the 
sciences, and as the world was ripe for them, it would 
not have waited long, though Copernicus, or Faust, or 
Watt, or Newton, had died in infancy. 

So, too, Rome would have been mistress of the 
world, Caesar or no Csesar. The German empire would 
have exerted a commanding influence in the middle 
ages, though Charlemagne had never been born, nor, 
seven centuries later, Charles V. ascended the throne. 
Doubtless the papacy would have become supreme, 
even if Hildebrand had died an undistinguished monk ; 
and the sixteenth century would have witnessed the 



reformation, though the " son of the Thuringian miner" 
had "been elevated to the See of Rome. And yet, every 
one of these great hinges upon which the destiny of the 
world has swung, goes into history bearing the mark, 
the sign-manual of him whom God selected for the 
forging. 

In modern times, more than ever before, it is true 
that no one man is necessary. In a sense that earlier 
ages never knew, nations and peoples move first, and 
then, the action having begun, they install as leader 
the man whom the circumstances evoke. Yet, just as 
surely now as ever, the mark of the chosen man is upon 
the grand result. If he be insufficient, or, in any regard, 
unworthy, he may for a while dam up and delay the 
progress; but soon the hindered waves gather new 
head, and, rushing on, sweep him away or cast him 
stranded upon the bank. But if he prove worthy of 
his high vocation, then the whole movement is in a 
measure swayed and directed according to the influence 
of his master-mind. 

God rules the world in the interests of the Church 
of His eternal Son, and to this end every great event 
tends ; but still as God and man work together, every 
step is marked with the human foot-print of the great 
men whom He uses as His agents, or whom He per- 
mits for a while to struggle in hopeless conflict against 
them. 

And thus it is with recent events in our own 
country. 

For my part, I have always believed, what the re- 



suit seems now to have proved, that our statesman was 
right, who announced that upon this continent there- 
was an " irrepressible conflict" which, in the nature of 
thiugs, must go on, until one side or the other was 
completely vanquished. It was not Calhoun and his 
fellow-advocates of slavery and State rights, nor was it 
intemperate and premature abolitionists that made the 
conflict. The necessity was in the nature of the circum- 
stances in which this country found itself, and in the 
exigencies of Christian progress and advancing civiliza- 
tion, brought into conflict with old and moribund 
theories. Yet these men gave it shape and brought it 
to the issue. 

So, emphatically, of the administration of affairs dur- 
ing the last four years. 

The London Spectator speaks of Lincoln as " the vil- 
lage-lawyer whom, by some divine inspiration or provi- 
dence, the republican caucus of 1860 substituted for 
Mr. Seward as their nominee for the President's chair." 
That is exactly it. 

The same God, who in the last century could have 
done without a "Washington, if He had so chosen, was 
pleased to give us, in our extremity, a second Washing- 
ton whose personal influence should enter into His 
jdans as one of the elements of their success. 

We need not, like the historian Gibbon, flippantly 
speculate what would be the various results at import- 
ant crises, did some accident prevent certain men reach- 
ing certain positions. When God has need of a man 
in any place, He sees that he gets there; and thus 



it was when, in 1860, we, doubting and fearing, cast 
our ballots. Then, while many conscientiously voted 
to no purpose, the most that any of us can say is, that 
we felt it to be better to grasp an uncertainty that 
might prove a blessing, than to commit ourselves to 
what we knew revolted our moral sense. But now we 
all know that we were intrusting the interests of the 
country to a hand strong enough to leave its mark 
upon them. 

While events were in progress, it was sometimes 
querulously said, that in no sense did this man guide 
and shape their course, but, on the other hand, was 
directed and driven by them. We begin now to under- 
stand just how far this was true. Doubtless he was not 
their cause. It has been very truly said, for example, 
in reference to his treatment of slavery, that " he was 
chosen as men usually are, to do that which he was 
most fearful of doing — not because he did not see that 
it was a great work — but because he only very gradu- 
ally opened his eyes to its being a work in which he, 
with his defined duties, had a right to meddle." But, 
nevertheless, the movement is indelibly impressed with 
his characteristics. 

So, too, it is true that he never assumed the airs or 
issued the mandates of a despot. The American peo- 
ple in the latter half of the nineteenth century neither 
want nor need a Ca3sar, a Charlemagne, a Napoleon, 
nor, I think I may add, a Cromwell or a Jackson. 

But he was " influenced by events" ! 

There are two ways for a navigator to be influenced 



10 

by winds and tides. He may either stand with his 
hands by his side and with month closed, and drift, 
drift aimlessly and idly, or he may study the winds and 
tides, and so direct his course that instead of vainly 
battling them, they may be made the very cause of his 
swift and safe progress. 

The poor old man wdio preceded Lincoln, was satis- 
fied that he could not still the raging w 7 aves and hush 
the rising gale, and so nothing could be done but 
drift. 

Lincoln, sublime in his humble faith, determined 
that, with the help of the Almighty, the swelling 
surges and howling storm should all be so used that 
they should become grand and God-like powers to in- 
sure the safety and the speedy accomplishment of the 
voyage. 

Take it for all in all, and no man has ever so read 
the heart of the American people. He stood, as it 
were, listening for the judgment of the nation, and 
had the wisdom from amid the discordant clamor of 
many advisers to distinguish what was truly the " voice 
of the people," and thus in some sense, at least, the 
" voice of God." There have been times when he ap- 
pealed from Philip drunk to Philip sober, but that was 
because he knew the people better than they knew 
themselves, and they understood it and responded in 
November last, w r ith an acclamation that rung all over 
the w r orld and awakened answering echoes even among 
the incredulous rulers across the sea. 

If it be necessary to speak more specifically, I would 



11 

direct you to two or three particulars in which this 
personal power has been very apparent : 

1. He was never even accused of being unduly influ- 
enced by any one confidential adviser. During his ad- 
ministration there was no suspicion of a king behind 
the throne. He gathered around him men as wise and 
as good, upon the whole, as have graced any adminis- 
tration since the days of Washington, and he counselled 
with them freely, and yet there was no kitchen cabinet. 
He gave his confidence to one General after another, 
and admitted them to most intimate familiarity, and 
yet no one remained in command after it became evi- 
dent that another could better fill his place. 

Now this, which would be remarkable in the case of 
any chief magistrate, becomes unparalleled when we 
consider that Lincoln's life had been previously almost 
entirely that of a private citizen, and remember his 
peculiarly amiable and gentle characteristics. 

2. Be it remembered that in no important particular 
was he ever obliged to retrace his steps. 

Some have thought that he moved slowly, but he 
certainly moved surely. Particularly was this true 
with reference to his dealing with the question of 
questions — Slavery. Every kind of criticism, some- 
times of the most virulent and vituperative kind, 
was made upon his every act in relation to this. 
Extreme and hasty men abused his slowness. Old- 
school and ultra-conservative men abused his meddling. 
But regardless of both, he moved steadily forward, as 
he believed God and the American people willed that 



12 

lie should, and I presume that very few now doubt the 
wisdom of a course that has never, thus far, needed to 
be revised or corrected. 

3. We see the force of his personal influence upon 
events in the fact that, little by little, the American 
people grew into the habit of trusting him implicitly. 

It has become a proverb among the monarchists of 
Europe that Republics are both fickle and ungrateful ; 
and we freely admit that it is characteristic of this na- 
tion — at least, as represented by its public prints — to 
rush into enthusiastic extremes of admiration and con- 
demnation, often at very short notice, and with very 
little reason. In the earlier years of the war, more than 
one general was greeted with shouts of applause as cer- 
tainly about to be the " young Napoleon," who would 
bring the contest to a triumphant end ; and then, after 
doing quite as well as any one had any reasonable 
ground for expecting, dismissed from popular favor, 
and consigned to an oblivion as profound as unde- 
served. 

And in regard to the presidential office, so fond were 
many of change, or, as they would have expressed it, 
" trying a new hand," that what was called the " one- 
term princij>le v was dignified, for the occasion, into an 
article of political faith. Yet, in spite of all these popu- 
lar characteristics and adverse circumstances, Abraham 
Lincoln grew steadily in the confidence and affection of 
the American people. 

Had his term of office, like that of the Premier of 
England, depended upon popular favor, it is possible 



13 

that within the first two years he would have "been dis- 
placed ; but, by the article of our Constitution, we were 
obliged to give him four years ; and before that period 
elapsed, the mind of the people, which had vibrated 
and wavered between distrust and confidence, settled 
down into a confirmed belief that resulted in his en- 
thusiastic reelection to a second term of office. 

Such a result could never have been effected, had he 
not impressed himself upon us as a, power personally — 
a power acting upon the momentous events which were 
passing into history. We felt his presence and his in- 
fluence, even though we could not always analyze and 
describe it, and the result proved that that which in 
us was for the most part a divinely given instinct, was 
the true dictate of the sublimest political wisdom. 

After his reelection, only five short months were 
needed for his work to culminate and close, yet the 
judgment of the world reaffirms the truth of the elo- 
quent words which fell from the lips of the historian 
of America, when called upon to soothe and encourage 
the hearts of his fellow-countrymen as they returned, 
weeping, from following the bier of Lincoln through 
the streets of New- York.* 

* " But after every allowance, it will remain that members of the Gov- 
ernment which preceded his administration opened the gates to treason, 
and he closed them ; that when he went to Washington, the ground on 
which he trod shook under his feet, and he left the Republic on a solid 
foundation ; that traitors had seized public forts and arsenals, and he 
recovered them for the United States, to whom they belonged ; that the 
Capital, which he found the abode of slaves, is now the home only of the 
free ; that the boundless public domain which was grasped at, and in a 



14 



II. Thus far, we have been considering the influence 
of Lincoln upon the events amid which he lived and 
moved ; but there is another balance in which his cha- 
racter, like that of every other man, must be weighed. 
There is a style of influence greater than that which 
sways cotemporary events, and we must ask of every 
great man, What lasting moral impression does he 
make upon his country and upon the world ? 

It is in this regard, for the most part, that we are 
able to give the philosopher or the statesman his true 
place, as compared with the victorious soldier. The 
latter may dazzle the eyes of the world, and seem to 
be the master-spirit of his age ; but it is quite possible 
that the former, in the seclusion of almost private life, 
may be framing laws or shaping principles of philoso- 
phy that will change the whole course of history long 
after the great ocean of time has closed and ceased to 
ripple over the brilliant deeds of the apparent con- 
queror. Plato and Aristotle have done more for the 
world than Philip and Alexander. 

We come, then, to our second question, and ask, 

great measure held for the diffusion of slavery, is now irrevocably devoted 
to freedom ; that then men talked a jargon of a balance of power in a 
Republic between slave States and free, and now the foolish words are 
blown away for ever by the breath of Maryland, Missouri, and Tennessee ; 
that a terrible cloud of political heresy rose from the abyss, threatening to 
hide the light of the sun, and under its darkness a rebellion was rising into 
undefinable proportions, now the atmosphere is purer than ever before, and 
the insurrection is vanishing away, the country is cast into a different 
mould, and the gigantic system of wrong, which had been the work of 
more than two centuries, is dashed down, we hope, for ever." — Bancroft. 



15 

What shall we conclude of the moral influence of 
Abraham Lincoln ? 

Has he, in the words of our text, "fed them accord- 
ing to the integrity of his heart"? 

Necessarily, what we remark in reference to this is 
more speculative in character, and may not win the 
assent of all. Though "we have been making his- 
tory," as Winthrop said, "hand over hand," we are not 
yet far enough removed from the actual presence of 
Lincoln to know just how lasting will be his influence 
upon the hearts of men. All the signs of the times, 
however, unite in telling us : 

1. That the influence of his official life will be long 
felt in the moral character of our political principles. 

Consider, for a moment, whither our politics, so- 
called, had been drifting. Degenerating from the 
times of Jefferson, and that, too, more and more ra- 
pidly every year, they were fast debasing the noble 
word " politician'''' into an appellative for a smart, bra- 
zen-faced demagogue, who sought public office for his 
own private advantage. Yet, so successfully had the 
wheels of republican government rolled along for half 
a century, that honest men, thoroughly given up to the 
pursuit of their own private ends and the cultivation 
of private virtues, seemed to have forgotten that there 
might be an amount of selfishness and corruption in 
high office that would break up even as stable a gov- 
ernment as ours. I give no political party credit for 
the election of Lincoln ; for, although, by the blessing 
of God, the sound of the cannon awoke the people 



16 

just before ruin was complete, still the election ante- 
dates the awakening, and Lincoln was nominated, un- 
doubtedly, just because he was supposed to be an 
available candidate. God's providence ordered it, that 
he was not only that, but also an honest man. 

No one conceived the mighty issues that were being 
decided when, in I860, we deposited our ballots ; and 
when the unpolished, inexperienced " village lawyer " 
quietly took his place in the White House, the na- 
tion stood, as it were, agape, waiting to see what would 
come next, for, by this time, we began to realize that a 
storm was brewing. 

Slowly but surely, it became evident that a new era 
had dawned in political life. No more concealed co- 
alitions, no more pettifogging, no more truckling to 
the threats of bastard chivalry. The most momentous 
questions came before that simple, unaffected mind ; 
and, to the astonishment of the people, the disgust of 
demagogues, and the dismay of traitors, every such 
question was brought to the simple test of honesty, 
straightforwardness, and equity. 

What would be the result of such a strange and 
novel course ? We bes;an to fear that our new Presi- 
dent would not shine in that favorite American charac- 
teristic, " smartness" 

Mistakes, undoubtedly, this man made, and he was, 
by no means, careful always to conceal the working 
and the weighing that was taking place in his own 
mind while he was deciding upon any particular line 



17 

of action ; and this, at times, laid him open to severe 
criticism. 

But, by and by, every one began to admit that hon- 
esty, simplicity, and frankness, were better arts in 
diplomacy than all the Machiavelism in the world. 
Then, as fast maturing events proved the wisdom of 
his conclusions, there arose a deep-rooted and abiding 
faith that he was just the man to rej)resent a great 
democratic people. And now, I say, party traditions 
have been, in a great measure, swept aside. We have 
learned to distrust cunning and trickery ; and the in- 
fluence of this man is not going to be forgotten in 
political circles for one generation at least. 

Our political morals have been keyed-up to some- 
where near a unison with the morals of private life. 
The American people have had a taste of honesty and 
morality in public life, and not only do they find it a 
success, but they thoroughly like its flavor, and for a 
while, at least, and I hope for ever, this new mode in 
politics will obtain. 

Having seen the advantage and the glory of honesty 
and simplicity in high official position, can it be possi- 
ble that the great mass of the people will ever again 
relapse into indifference to our public welfare, and so 
let the reins of power fall into the hands of unbalanced 
and self-seeking partisan leaders ? 

2. It can not be but that the character and life of a 

man like Abraham Lincoln will always exert some 

such influence as that of Washington's upon the yoinvj 

men and youth who, in a few years, will give tone to 

2 



18 

this country. And perhaps, in some respects, his influ- 
ence may be more definite and effective than that of 
Washington. 

Our first great President has been honored almost 
with an apotheosis. As the " Father of his Country " 
he seems to be so encircled by a halo of grandeur that 
it is hard to measure him by the ordinary standards of 
men. It is, for example, somewhat difficult for us even 
to picture his social life, or to imagine him in the home 
circle, unbending from the dignified stateliness that 
seems to be his natural attribute. 

Not so with Lincoln. "A plain man of the people" 
he called himself; and though he rose, step by step, to 
be almost the foremost man of all the world, he ever 
retained the same homely sympathy with common men 
and things around him, which brought him esj>ecially 
near to our hearts. 

It is well for us to be able to show that, while the 
days of Tancred, the "mirror of chivalry," and of 
the Chevalier de Bayard have passed away, we still 
have men, who, though they count it no dishonor to 
work, and no disgrace to be found with hands some- 
what rough, and with manners wanting in perfect pol- 
ish, are still more truly " without fear and without re- 
proach" than any knight of medieval chivalry; men 
who are grander in their characters and more worthy 
of reverence and imitation than all the heroes who 
have immortalized the " Round Table " or graced the 
"Idyls of a King." It was no affectation of respect 
that penned, in an English journal, such words as 



19 

these : " In all time to come, not among Americans 
only, "but among all who think of manhood as more 
than rank, and worth above display, the name of A lira- 
ham Lincoln will be held in reverence. A life so true, 
rewarded by a dignity so majestic, was defense enough 
against the petty shafts of malice, which party spirit, 
violent enough to light a civil war, aimed against him. 
The lowly callings he had first pursued became his 
titles to greater respect among those whose respect was 
worth having ; the little external rusticities only 
showed more brightly, as the rough matrix the golden 
ore, the true dignity of his nature. A purity of 
thought, word, and deed never challenged, a disinter- 
estedness never suspected, an honesty of purpose never 
impugned, a gentleness and tenderness that never made 
a private enemy or alienated a friend — these are quali- 
ties which may well make a nation mourn."* 

If thus a foreigner regard, our departed President, 
how great the shame to us if we be not, as a people, 
better and purer for the example that has shone so 
brightly in our midst ! 

Shall not our young men, remembering Lincoln, 
grow up with a truer estimate of the dignity and glory 
of simple, unadorned manhood? — that manhood which 
shines, not by the flaunting pretensions of entailed 
wealth and the gaudy tinsel of fictitious titles, but by 
deeds of usefulness, self-devotion, and honor. 

3. Finally, let me mention his influence in that char- 

* London Daily News, April 27, 1865. 



20 

acter in which he most impresses the world — that is, 
as the representative man of democracy, the incarna- 
tion, as it were, of the success of the principles of re- 
publican government. Great as he appears in the 
purity and honesty of his life, lasting as will be his 
fame as the chosen Emancipator, I believe that, at this 
moment, he impresses the world most as being the 
grand exponent of the result of that experiment which, 
for nearly a century, has been progressing upon this 
continent. 

Our forefathers felt, more than we have done, the 
gravity of their decision when, in spite of the many 
failures which the world had witnessed, they deter- 
mined to inaugurate republicanism as the life of the 
new nation. True, like almost all thoughtful men, 
they were convinced that in theory no government was 
so perfect' and equable as a democratic. They felt that 
it was a solemn and indisputable truth, that all men 
were born free and equal, but they were just as con- 
scious that, in the imperfect state of human nature, and 
in consideration of past experience, it was by no means 
certain that the age had come in which the ideally per- 
fect form would be the best for practical security. 
Washington is said to have asserted, that republican 
institutions were upon trial ; and Adams, writing of the 
•Constitution of the Senate and the Executive, used 
these impressive and foreboding words: "I contend 
that hereditary descent in both, when controlled by an 
independent representation of the people, is better than 
corrupted, turbulent, and bloody elections; and the 



21 

knowledge you have of the human heart will concur 
with your knowledge of the history of nations to con- 
vince you that elections of Presidents and Senators 
can not be long conducted in a populous, opulent, and 
commercial nation, without corruption, sedition, and 
civil war." 

Just about the same time the great experiment in 
France utterly failed, and Napoleon, who seized the 
reins of government, characterized a constitution with- 
out an aristocracy as nothing but a " balloon drifting 
in the air." " You can direct a vessel," he said, " be- 
cause you have two forces to balance against each 
other, and the rudder finds a point of resistance. But 
the balloon is the sport of a single force ; it has no 
counter force. The wind carries it along, and direction 
is impossible." 

Such was the general opinion and the anxiety of 
thoughtful minds ; and during the ninety years of the 
existence of this nation, it has been watched with eager 
eyes by its enemies, constantly looking for the crash 
which their blatant prophecies foretold; and it has 
been followed in its course by the ceaseless anxiety of 
its friends, who have had too much reason to see in the 
tyranny of an unexampled material prosperity, and in 
fast increasing political corruption, the signs of grow- 
ing selfishness, decaying patriotism, and approaching 
dissolution. 

The great issue to be decided was whether the wide- 
spread facilities for education and for the enlighten- 
ment of the masses would take effect in time to trans- 



22 

form ignorance and vice (constantly increasing by im- 
migration) into enliglitenment and purity before they 
became impudent enough to aspire to the direction of 
affairs. In other words, was the world old enough for 
the educating power of republicanism to conquer the 
inherent selfishness and wickedness of human nature, 
which hitherto had been curbed only by the strong 
hand of power ? 

Years passed away, and still the struggle was going 
on. On the one side, the Brights and the Cobdens 
could say : " The Republic still lives, and her prosper- 
ity is unprecedented." On the other side, the Roe- 
bucks and the Derbys would reply : " Yes ; but the 
machinery works harder and harder every year. The 
politicians are becoming more and more corrupt, party 
spirit more and more virulent. "Wait a little ! The 
crash will soon come." 

At last these sneerers shouted out in exulting deri- 
sion. Democracy had, at length, reached its acme — 
produced its " bright consummate flower." It had 
chosen as its Chief Magistrate, not one of its Win- 
throps, its Adamses, its Everetts, of the North, nor 
one of the representatives of the first families of the 
chivalry of the South, but a vulgar, awkward, half- 
educated Western lawyer, who, in his youth, had been 
a rail-splitter and a flat-boatman. 

A little later, and stupendous rebellion raised its 
black flag. Then the whole thing was settled. " The 
Republican bubble has burst at last? That was the 
phrase that just met the occasion. 



23 

Four years Lave passed away. The world sees, with 
admiring awe, that the " Republican bubble " has not 
burst ; but, on the other hand, that a democracy has 
proved itself the strongest government in the world, 
and its citizens more self-denying in their loyalty than 
any subjects of a king ever dreamed of being possible. 

But this is not all. The world has learned the true 
character of him at whom they scoffed and sneered. 
They derided him as the acknowledged exponent of 
democracy, and, as such, they are now bound to accept 
him. And what is their verdict in regard to him whom 
they thus denominated ? He has conquered their pre- 
judices, he has won their admiration, yes, even their 
love, and now they can hardly find words to speak the 
full measure of their praise. It was before his death 
so deeply touched their feelings and called forth their 
better nature, that a writer referring to the last inaugu- 
ral, and doubtless reflecting the sentiment of all candid 
Englishmen, remarked : " We can no longer detect the 
rude and illiterate mould of a village lawyer's thought, 
but find it replaced by a grasp of principle, a dignity 
of manner, and a solemnity of purpose, which would 
have been unworthy neither of Hampden nor of Crom- 
well, while his gentleness and generosity of feeling 
toward his foes are almost greater than we should ex- 
pect from either of them."* 

Now, I say, that a democratic country may well be 
proud of such a man — a thorough American, born and 

* London Spectator, March 25, 1865. 



24 

nurtured amid our institutions, educated under their 
influence, exposed to the same trials, hampered by the 
same drawbacks, beset by the same temptations, des- 
tined to the same struggles, which meet the great mass 
of our fellow-countrymen, and yet manifesting that 
there is nothing in all these that can prevent the form- 
ation of a character as lofty and a patriotism as pure 
as ever challenged the admiration of man. 

He is ours — ours alone. No foreign university had 
aught to do with his training. No aristocratic circles 
are to be thanked for the simple dignity of his bear- 
ing. No intimacy with the courts of kings taught him 
the arts of skilled diplomacy. And thus, I say, his 
life is a pledge of the success and ennobling power of 
pure democratic institutions. 

It is enough to give eternal dignity to any country 
to have produced two such men as Washington and 
Lincoln — men differing in almost every personal qua- 
lity, but alike in their moral grandeur, and in repre- 
senting each the very best product of the age in which 
he lived. Washington was the connecting link be- 
tween the Monarchy and the Eepublic, the father of a 
new-born democracy ; Lincoln was the son of the Ee- 
public and the exemplar of its matured strength. 
Washington guided and guarded his people as the 
father leads the child ; Lincoln listened to the heart- 
throbs of his fellow-citizens, and timed his own pulse 
to the solemn august music. Washington shone in that 
courtly dignity that impresses and awes the bystander ; 



25 

Lincoln in that homely kindness that won the confi- 
dence of every honest man. 

To Washington his country will ever pay the tribute 
of reverent homage; the memory of Lincoln will be 
enshrined in every true and Loving heart. 

• > 

I have but a word to add. It is given to but few to 
serve their country in their death as truly as in their 
life. It is hard to say what more, Lincoln living might 
have consecrated to his country, but God ordained 
that, by his death, every doubt in regard to the future 
of this nation should be swept away. 

It matters little what costly mausoleums or monu- 
mental shafts we rear to his memory. To the eye of 
the world his monument will be the Republic, freed 
from the stain of slavery and united by indissoluble 
bonds ; North and South claiming as their common 
heritage the simple grave where the hallowed dust of 
Abraham Lincoln awaits the coming of the Lord. 



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